Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India's biggest and most valuable company, has served up a striking contradiction in its latest quarterly scorecard. Between April and June, the opening quarter of the current financial year, its revenue raced ahead sharply, yet its net profit slipped 22 percent against the same period a year earlier. The bottom line came in at ₹20,946 crore, down from ₹26,994 crore in the year-ago quarter. The most important takeaway from the numbers, released on Friday, was that strong showings from the telecom and oil-to-chemicals arms pushed the company's operating profit and EBITDA to their highest levels ever.
Why profit fell while business grew
At first glance the drop in profit looks alarming, but the real explanation is buried in last year's figures. In the same quarter of the previous financial year, the company had booked a one-time gain of ₹8,924 crore. That exceptional profit came from selling its stake in Asian Paints. This elevated base is what makes the current quarter's profit look softer by comparison. Strip out that one-off gain, and Reliance's underlying operating performance in the June quarter was considerably stronger. That strength showed up on the top line, where revenue leapt 25.4 percent to ₹3.12 lakh crore.
EBITDA and profit both at record highs
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, EBITDA climbed 10.1 percent to a record ₹54,067 crore, while net profit on the same basis rose 6.1 percent to a record ₹23,196 crore. The performance across the company's various segments, however, was uneven. Oil-to-chemicals (O2C) and telecom logged brisk growth, whereas the retail business stayed relatively subdued. Reliance Retail's revenue rose 7.4 percent to ₹90,408 crore, but its EBITDA dipped 1.1 percent to ₹6,309 crore because of continued spending on its digital commerce platform, and its margin narrowed to 7.9 percent.
From fuel to chemicals, and telecom's push
The core earnings of the oil-to-chemicals business jumped 17.2 percent year on year to ₹17,010 crore. Better refining margins and firm demand for petrochemical products supported the gain. Telecom, meanwhile, remained the company's single biggest growth engine. Jio Platforms saw its profit rise 15.1 percent, while its customer base crossed 53.3 crore. Steady investment in technology also kept revenue climbing.
Jio's record profit and IPO groundwork
Jio Platforms posted a record pre-tax profit of ₹20,865 crore, up 15.1 percent from a year earlier. Its EBITDA margin improved by 1.50 percentage points to 53.3 percent. Even bigger, during the June quarter Jio Platforms filed its draft documents with SEBI. That is seen as a major step toward the company's much-awaited IPO, one that investors will be watching closely.
